I have also seen this several times. It seems to happen a lot when I have taken an AI city and moved all my units toward the next doomed city. A few turns later I get the message that my city was taken.

That is the first (of several responses) that mentions the Krax ability. It may have happened, but I doubt it is every time (every game) and I know for this latest game it is not the case.

A response in the general forum thread suggested this would make a great addition: if city unrest is too high, the militia wont fight for you! This isn't what is happening (the unrest in some cities is quite low before they fall), but is a good suggestion.

I forgot to mention that although I have the save game file, I don't see how to easily attach the file. I assume Stardock doesn't want a cornucopia of files sitting in their forums. At any rate if SD wants the file I have it for you.

Thanks again!

Dropbox works well for me, and Frogboy uses it as well.  I am actually curious to look at that file, too.  I have never had my militia not protect a town of mine, but then again, I seldom have people attacking my cities. 

I think it was meant to be that cities that were settled by another side that you took over would not produce militia when attacked.  However, I'm pretty sure I've had militia defending occupied cities before, so maybe you have to wait 5 turns before militia will appear?  Just a guess.

A couple of clarifying items:

This happens to cities that have been held scores of turns.

It isn't because of AI spells, I can scroll though captured cities and see some have militia and some do not. (As an aside, look through some of your captured cities via the details page and see if there are militia icons in the lower left for all of your captured cities).

Some captured cities produce militia and some do not (perhaps this is a faction or empire issue).

I have posted two other threads that discuss this problem in the general forum (and it does happen to others) and I was told to post it here so SD could clarify if it is by design or a bug.

Cheers

Requested link to save game posted to Dropbox...

Polite reminder looking for clarification posted a week ago...

...being so patient.....